But today, I think I witnessed a guy who was legit.  He was lecturing a kid and saying something like “Hey, little man. Now this is your last strike.  If you don’t listen and keep wandering off, you’re gonna have to hold my hand all day… and my hands get sweaty.”  It was sooo cute.  Especially because I’ve taught kids that age before and know how they can be.  His approach was perfect.  +10 in my book.

I tried to pretend that I was preoccupied texting someone, but the whole time I was thinking how freakin adorable that was.  Made me miss the little kids at my church back home.  I used to love teaching at the summer school there before the Korean ahjoomas took over.  Sigh…they ruin everything.

Awkward Moment #1: I went to the post office to mail out a package today when I ran into none other than Pastor Harris.  Yes, P.Diddy himself for those OG KCS members old enough to remember when people called him that.  Needless to say I was REALLY caught off guard.  I never see Pastor Harris on campus even though he works right at Crouse Hospital.  I actually can’t imagine Pastor Harris living a life outside of church.  You know what I mean?  I feel like when pastors are done preaching on Sundays, they just eat/sleep/live at church.  Can you see Pastor Harris going grocery shopping?  Or to the movies or something?  Strange.  And to make things worse, I wasn’t sure what to call him.  Do I call him Pastor Harris still even though we’re not at church and he’s not a full-time pastor?  Or do I call him Mr. Harris?  I feel like Pastor Harris is one of those guys who would say “Mr. Harris is my father, call me…”  And yes, I was thinking about all of these questions during the two-second time span when I should have responded to Pastor Harris saying hi to me — creating an awkward lag in the conversation that never started.

Awkward Moment #2: My supervisor at the Sheraton wanted me to go and interview our head engineer guy down in the basement (or the dungeon, as he likes to call it).  So I was standing by the elevator to go visit him when two punk high school kids show up (there’s a bajillion of them at the hotel this week for some kind of conference).  Anyways, they were scoping me out, which is gross because they were born in the late ’90s, but I didn’t want to cause a scene and confront them.  A few seconds later, their friend shows up and I can see him out of the corner of my eye and he’s pointing in my direction and making weird gestures as if to say, “tap that shit.”  At this point, I’m kinda getting frustrated.  I turn around with a comeback ready and stashed in my brain when I see this one lady gesturing to that guy that was behind me.  It finally clicks right then and there that he wasn’t saying “tap that shit.”  He’s deaf.  He was using sign language -_____-

Awkward Moment #3: I was in Schine donating blood and I guess it’s standard for the blood-pumper-outers to try and strike up a conversation with you so that you don’t feel awkward.  HAHA as if that’s possible with me.  So I’m making small talk with this random lady.  She’s asking me about my major and such, but I’m not much of a talker, especially when my life force is literally being sucked out of my body and neatly packaged in a pouch.  Soon enough, she gets bored with me and is about to walk away when one of her co-workers starts laughing hysterically in the corner.  She says, “That must be Jorge.  Wow, he’s having a little fiesta over there.”  I tried to brush off the comment, which is borderline racist, but ended up replying, “That’s not very PC awkward chuckle awkward chuckle.”  Her happy-go-lucky-daisies-and-sunshine-are-my-life face disappeared in 0.324 seconds flat.

So yeah, that’s just a normal day in my life.  I legit think I should quit this general blog and make one devoted solely to my awkward encounters.  They seem to be increasing as I get older, so plenty of material to blog about  -______-

“Over My Head”
By Starfield

“Trying to wrap my mind around
Extravagant love come down
Leaves me undone
Finds me with nothing to say”

It really is over my head.

“Dear Cho:

Syracuse University is currently engaged in a study of student experiences on campus. As part of this effort, we invite you to participate in an online survey for undergraduate students. The survey will take about 15 minutes to complete and covers a range of topic areas, including:

• Classroom and major experiences
• Peer interactions
• Campus environment and institutional practices
• Coming to and staying at SU

The survey results will provide us with a better understanding of the campus experience, with a focus on issues of race and ethnicity. The experiences of all students and groups are important to the University, and we encourage you to share your perceptions…”

So here is my response…maybe I should have chilled for three seconds before hitting send lol:

“To Whom It May Concern,

I will fill out your survey out of courtesy, but maybe the first thing you can do in order to not offend those of color on campus is to address them by their correct and respective names, especially in e-mails when you clearly have enough time and exposure to resources to do so.  Cho is my last name, not my first.  I understand that may be an ambiguous and difficult thing for those of Caucasian descent to figure out, but it is something that is CLEARLY marked on all of my school records as well as the SU E-mail Directory, which I am assuming was utilized for this mass message.

I hope that helps you on your path towards “a better understanding of the campus experience, with a focus on issues of race and ethnicity.”

Sincerely,
Minhee Cho
(American name still TBD)”

I wonder if any of these survey people will have the balls to reply back to my e-mail…

1. TRIP TO CANADA, EH?: I can’t even remember when everyone first started saying we should have an epic weekend adventure in Montreal/Toronto, but it must happen this semester!  Especially now that everyone is obsessed with “How I Met Your Mother” and we even have a few fresh-from-France friends, I am DYING to see what Canada is all ‘aboot.’

2. D.O. CROSSWORD: Never in my four years here at SU have I ever completed the stupid Daily Orange Crossword puzzle.  Sad, right?  Or is it more sad that I care?  Anyways, I am absolutely determined to defeat it at least once this semester so wish me luck (or buy me a dictionary).

3. PARTY IN GRAHAM: Ah, the Mount.  Although I only lived there for the fall semester of my freshman year, there are a lot of great memories up those wretched stairs.  One of the best being Graham dining hall.  Mount reunion dinner at Graham, anyone?  I think so.  Or maybe just some late-night snacks at The Junction instead?

4. FRESHMEN 15: This is basically my New Year’s resolution, but I really REALLY want to lose the weight I gained freshman year ideally before spring break.  But with spring break only a month away, I’ll edit this goal and make it more realistic by saying before graduation  :]

5. SADLER, WHERE ART THOU?: I might be wrong about this, but I’m pretty sure I’ve been to every building on campus except Sadler/Lawrinson.  I hear the food there is terrible and that the building is mad far from civilization, but I just want to step foot inside the one SU territory that has evaded me for all these years.

6. FLIP NIGHT: I have never won a free drink at flip night, which completely defeats the purpose of going lol.  You would think I would have won at least once since it’s a 50-50 shot, but I guess I’m just really unlucky.  Watch I don’t get it until my last flip night as a senior -____-

7. CAROUSEL’S CAROUSEL: I’ve seen the carousel at Carousel Mall a bajillion times, but never rode it.  It was a bit too “Stairway to Heaven” for my taste, but now that I’m graduating I guess I should suck it up and give it a whirl.  The question is should I do it reluctantly and pretend someone forced me to do it ORRR go all out crazy as if carousels are my life’s passion and scar some children for life??  I think the latter would be more fun…with the help of Mr. Daniels, that is.

8. LIZ, SU’S NEW MASCOT: I think everyone has seen Liz’s picture by now.  You know, the one with her putting a book away in MLK library freshman year?  Well, I figure it is my duty as a friend to help steal and destroy everything with her photo in it and to somehow delete the original, if possible, since she hates it so much.  Haven’t seen it before?  It’s this one —>

9. BIG GIRLS DON’T CRY: I’ve talked about this with Gina Kim, but we’re both paranoid/know that we’re going to cry when Seniors’ Night rolls around.  It’s inevitable.  So I guess the whole point of this one is: a) actually go to Seniors’ Night and not chicken out and, b) at least cry cute.  I’ve seen it done before but was never one to master the skill.

Now that I scan through my bucket list, it seems really trivial since most people put crazy stuff like skydiving and getting arrested and such, but I am still jobless hence must be a boring and law abiding Asian for the time being.

Spring 2010 aka LAST SEMESTER OF MY LIFE, here I come.
Please be amazing.

I never told anyone, but those two weeks I spent in Africa were terrible.  It was quite possibly the worst missions trip I have ever been on.  But I couldn’t exactly say that, especially after all of my friends, family, and campus church had invested so much money and time in prayer on my behalf.  How could I come back and say anything short of God is amazing and truly showed his blessings upon us and other church-approved sayings?  My PR training kicked in and I told them what they wanted to hear.

The thing is I KNEW I shouldn’t go on this trip from Day 1.  I told Pastor James I wasn’t interested in another missions trip, that two back-to-back missions trips was enough for me.  But nope.  Him and Pastor Kang wouldn’t take no for an answer and soon enough I was signed up for more than I had bargained for. 

Life is all about the choices we make, right?  Well, if there was ever a crucial turning point, it was the night before our flight.  The whole team was sleeping at church since we had to leave for the airport at around 4:00am.  I was lying down in the pews and just about to knock out when I had this clear and urgent sense that I shouldn’t go.  That moment was honestly the closest I’ve ever come to receiving a direct message from God about anything.  He was giving me one last chance, and I totally ignored it.  My stupid logic and reasoning kept saying how I couldn’t turn back now.  That if I did, I would be wasting months of training, the hundreds of dollars my campus church had donated…how could I show my face back at KCS and tell them I hadn’t even had the guts to go to Kenya afterall?

The trip wasn’t all bad though.  It was just the team chemistry that was driving me insane.  First of all, I was the youngest on the team, which was ironically something I was looking forward to.  Ever since I first accepted Christ in my freshman year of high school, I had never felt that ’high’ again and was constantly in search of it.  I chocked it up to a lack of older people to look up to.  Everyone that had helped me through that time had gone to college or gotten married, basically moved on, and now this missions trip seemed like a chance for me to relive my ‘glory days’ with God if you will and, hopefully, reinstill my faith as I entered the new realm of college.  Instead, my expectations came shattering down when I realized that most of the team had NEVER been on a missions trip before and how much that really made a difference.  They viewed this as a vacation of sorts, and missions is supposed to be so much more than that.  To me, missions is truly one of the most important and sacred things in life, and the way these older people were acting was an insult to that.  For example, while on the trip, they would constantly complain about not being able to take a shower.  HELLO.  WE’RE IN THE FREAKIN DESERT.  Water is not a commodity to be wasted on conditioning your hair.  Another problem was hormones.  A lot of the people on the team were in their mid-twenties, yet single, which led to its own slew of complications.  Rather than working with the children, they were flirting with each other.  Really?  You paid $2,000 and traveled halfway around the world to try and get some?  If you need a release, go work a corner back in the States.  At least you would make some money then.

Clearly, I was frustrated, which was interpreted as I’m a bitch.  The only thing that got me by was my new friend, 읍이.  She was a fob from Korea that was also working with the missionary that was guiding our team.  And even though I’d only known her for about two weeks, we kept in touch over the years.  We’re actually meeting up tomorrow in NYC and I still consider her a good friend of my mine to this day. 

Basically, long story short, I am more sure now than ever that everything happens for a reason.  The message the night before, the doubt, the frustration…it was all just a necessary step so that I would reflect and mull over things later on like I am now.  The way I look at it, this missions trip, though stressful, has not only taught me to be more patient with people (a skill I am still trying to perfect), but has also brought a friend in my life that I would never have met otherwise.  I also got to meet a lot of great Kenyan children and witness their strength and inner joy despite the difficult situations they face. 

Most importantly of all, I realized that I need to chill with my expectations and standards, especially when it comes to church stuff, hence my more…let’s call it ‘relaxed’ lifestyle this year.  It’s funny because when I was trying to be a super-Christian, people called me too self-righteous and now that I’m trying to be more normal, everyone at church has forgotten me.  I’m invisible.  I guess there really is no in-between.  But no worries.  I know things will turn around and that my crazy standards won’t seem so crazy one day:   

“I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”
– Psalm 27:13 –

According to the Chinese zodiac, 2009 was the year of the pig, and it was also when swine flu terrorized the nation.  A couple of years before that, when the bird flu was what everyone was worried about, it was apparently the year of the cock.  Strange, right?  Well, what makes this theory almost eerily nerve-racking is that 2012, the year everyone down to the ancient Mayans believes to be the end, is the year of the DRAGON.

Dun dunn dunnnnn.

The Time Traveler’s Wife – starring Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams
Law Abiding Citizen – starring Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler
The Stepfather – starring Penn Badgley and Dylan Walsh
New Moon – starring Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson
The Invention of Lying – starring Jennifer Garner and Ricky Gervais